The Southern Cape avocado packing season started last Monday, taking up the baton from the avocado growers in the high-altitude areas of Limpopo whose crop is now tapering off. "As the Western Cape has expanded its avocado hectares, we need to be looking more at exports," says Dr Guy Witney of Great Brak Avos. "It's been a quite remarkable growth here: we've gone from 140ha in 2017 in the Southern Cape to somewhere around 1,400ha of avocados. It's grown very dramatically."
Last season's 2,000 tonnes of avocados grown around George and Groot-Brakrivier (Great Brak River) will increase to 2,800 tonnes this year, with another roughly thousand tonnes coming out of the nearby Heidelberg/Swellendam area, he says.
For the first time there are sufficient Southern Cape avocados to continue exports into December. Dr Guy Witney is very enthusiastic about the quality of the current crop despite what he calls a very challenging growing season. "It seems like each weather system that moved through the Cape since December has been very windy, and we've had an exceptionally cold winter, much windier and colder than anything we've had the last eight years."
In Europe, Peruvian avocado supplies are dropping dramatically, and the South American country is expected to exit in about three weeks. "The first four containers of Maluma avocados, marketed by Avor, were shipped last week, with more to follow over the following two weeks."
He continues: "We got off to a fantastic start with our Malumas, with very good production in all local Maluma orchards. In most of the Maluma orchards that are over seven years old, we take off 20 tonnes-plus per hectare, which is fantastic. The quality and the size are very good."
A Southern Cape Hass orchard during springtime (photos: Dr Guy Witney)
Weather leaves a mark, but ample volumes left
Dr Witney remarks that the Hass cultivar has not fared as well in high winds, with up to 30% losses in particularly wind-prone areas of the Southern Cape, but there is still a lot of good quality Hass fruit left – despite the wind, a lot more this year than during previous years, he says.
"We'll start shipping Hass in two weeks and I'm looking forward to a very good Hass season which will extend all the way into December from growers in this area," he says. Capital Fruit markets some of their avocados, and the bulk of their Hass (and of course all of their GEM) goes into Westfalia's European retail programmes.
The GEM harvest will start late September or beginning of October, with quite a few young GEM orchards coming into production. "There'll be quite a bit of exports coming out of the area, despite a drop of 20 to 25% in older blocks of GEM, simply because of very cold, wet weather during flowering, but I think next year it'll bounce back."
New Lamb Hass (foreground) and GEM plantings near Great Brak River, Western Cape
Local availability at least until Christmas
They will have plenty of good-sized Gem avocados for their local retail programme with Woolworths, at least until Christmas; the retailer utilizes a lot of GEM fruit from the Western Cape during December and January and going into February.
"In years when we are short of late-season fruit, I think it is going to be necessary to bring in some fruit from Tanzania. It is not clear yet if it will be necessary this season to meet local retail demand during January and February."
There is much interest in avocados amongst the agricultural community, he observes. "The plan really is coming together very nicely. There are a lot of young new farmers and things look very good for the Western Cape."
Young GEM orchard in Wilderness, Southern Cape
For more information:
Dr Guy Witney
Groot-Brak Avos
Tel: +27 73 526 5047
Email: [email protected]